Wait and Hope
by Seshat0120
Summary: Companion piece to The Me I Am.


**Wait and Hope**

_by Seshat0120_

_Disclaimer: Quantum Leap and all related characters are owned by Belisarius Productions and Universal. No profit has been made off of the writing or distribution of this piece of fiction._

Al watched as Sam and the world around him faded away. Sam had leaped again and Al waited patiently for a beat or two hoping to hear Ziggy's voice saying that Sam had made it home this time. It didn't come, though, just like so many times in the past it hadn't. God, Time, Fate, whatever it was that kept Sam leaping through time wasn't done with him yet. More and more each day, Al was beginning to believe it would never be done with Sam - and by extension, him.

With a sigh Al walked out of the Imaging Chamber headed toward his quarters on-site. As he passed through Control he curtly told Gooshie and Tina where he could be found if there was an emergency. The way he said it left little doubt in their minds that the only things that would qualify as an emergency were if they located Sam or the place was falling down around their ears.

Once in the confines of his quarters, Al lit the cigar he had been carrying. It wasn't too long ago, he thought, that he might have been reaching for a bottle too. That time, though, was gone.

His mind came back again to the thought he'd had in the Imaging Chamber - that whatever it was that was leaping Sam around in time just wasn't done with Sam yet - or Al either. True, unlike Sam, Al could leave whenever he wanted. There was nothing physically binding him to the project or to Sam. Friendship, though, just wouldn't allow him to turn his back on Sam - not when he needed him so much.

That point was never driven into him more clearly than it had been on this last leap. Sam needed him not just for the information Al provided him but also to keep him tied to his own self.

Al didn't think it would be any time in the near future that he'd be forgetting the look in the kid's eyes when he'd first centered in on him during the leap. Al couldn't remember such a lost look in Sam's eyes before. Sam's greeting of Al, one single word, had carried so much in it. A plea to be assured of who he was.

Al had made sure during that meeting and the rest of the leap to use Sam's name often - to reassure him of who he was - that he was Sam Beckett. Sam had spent so long bouncing in time and into and out of so many other people's lives Al had no problem understanding how it was that Sam could doubt who he was. Sometimes Al marveled that Sam was able to retain his sanity and identity leap after leap. A lesser man probably would have broken under the pressure long before this.

Sam had spent a long time living other people's lives. Although he had no idea of how long it was that he'd been leaping, Al did. It had been too many long and frustrating years of giving the kid the information he needed to get the job done but holding back on what Sam needed to know to know who he was. Oh, there'd been times Al had given some of that information to him - he'd told him his last name was Beckett on the second leap and there had been the time he'd shown him the picture of his brother Tom. Of course, there'd been hell to pay afterward. The Committee didn't care that he'd given those things to Sam out of compassion. All they cared about was that it violated the rules - rules made up by a man who couldn't even remember making up those rules now, let alone what they were.

Then there were the times that Sam remembered all on his own. Sometimes whoever it was who controlled the leaps was kind enough to give Sam back a piece of his memory. Other times it wasn't such a kindness at all. There was no joy in watching Sam recapture the memory of Tom's death. There was nothing Al could say to soften the blow. There was nothing he could do. If they'd shared the same time Al could at least have offered a pat on the shoulder or something. Instead, as a hologram all that he was left with were his words and sometimes they could be so ineffective.

Well, if God, Time, Fate or whatever was only going to leave him with words and moral support, there was no way he was going to give that up. He'd been with Sam from the start of building Project Quantum Leap and he'd see it through to the end with him. He never wanted to see that lost look in Sam's eyes again and he knew if he ever abandoned Sam that look would haunt him to his grave. Time may have separated him from his friend but he would never turn his back on that friendship.

It was with a slightly less heavy heart that Al turned to leave his quarters. It would be a while yet before Ziggy located Sam and Al could certainly think of entertaining ways to spend that time - and who to spend it with. Then, when the time came, he'd be there for Sam. Telling him what he needed to know to complete the leap and telling Sam what he needed to hear to remind him that he was Sam Beckett.


End file.
